Recent content by Lan

Mmm...just what I was mulling over for my next brew! Has anyone added 2 cans of the puree though? I want a fairly pronounced cherry flavor, but I don't want the extra sugar content to throw off the malt profile and thin the body either.

Yeah, from the samples I've had so far, the body may come out a little thin but a nice level of carbonation should broaden it out. A week isn't always long enough for the full carbonation to develop in my experience. On the flavor so far, the pumpkin character itself is mild...sort of a...

Fired up a batch of this one a couple weeks ago, just racked into secondary and ended up losing quite a bit to the thick trub on the bottom (I poured everything into the primary and let it all to settle out a bit). What do you guys do to minimize this loss?

Here's what I came up with, nothing fancy since I had hoped the yeast would lend a lot of character: - 2Kg Liquid Malt Extract - 500g Pilsner Malt - 250g Vienna Malt - 250g Munich malt - 30g Hallertau Hops @ 60min - 30g Hallertau @ 10 min - 112g grated ginger root @ 10min - 50g dried Hibiscus...

Hey Folks, Just sampled my first Saison attempt after a couple weeks in the bottle. I used WLP565 yeast and pitched it at around 31C. Had a very short lag time and no fermentation problems...went right down to 1.006 after 2 weeks in secondary. The flavor is lacking character however, I'm...

I made an amber ale with 50g Chipotle and 15g Morita peppers at flameout, added them whole with seeds and stems and all. After cooling the wort and straining out the hops, I retained all the peppers and dumped them into the primary to sit there for 10 days. Ended up with a nice well-rounded...

It's been 9 days in primary and my gravity is just slightly below 1.010. I've racked into into the carboy and took a quick taste. I noticed more of a banana-like character which may have developed because I pitched at too high a temperature, thoughts? Also, I've got another ounce or two of...

Finished up another brew tonight, just starting to ferment in the primary. Here's what I did, what do you guys think? It is supposed to be a warm week over here and I am looking to keep the fermentation temps up as high as possible in order to yield maximum funkiness! Ginger-Hibiscus Saison...

I recently returned from a trip to Berlin, and was able to sample a fair amount of beers unfamiliar to me. Although not one of my absolute favorites over there, I tried a pint of Choriner Zwickelbier. I had had Kellerbiers before, supposedly a similar style, although this particular brew was...

I tried an espresso stout a few months back whereby I used one of those stove-top espresso makers, added about 500ml at flameout. In the end I could pick up only slight coffee notes. That being said, I would probably double the amount next time, although I've heard that cold extraction methods...

Alright, so I needed to leave the beer in secondary for a total of 4 weeks before the yeast began to flocculate; hit an FG of 1.010. I transferred to bottles and the first 2 weeks showed very little signs of carbonation, a slight hissing upon opening and that was about it. I am now sampling...

My thought is that you may want to aim for a more fermentable wort than usual since the final sugar addition could lead to an overly sweet beer. In the case of something like maple syrup, you would likely need to add to fair amount in order out bring out the flavor.

I don't have the equipment to experiment with this at the moment, but wouldn't it be possible to capture and retain much of a sugars flavor in the final beer by mashing low, then cold crashing with your sugar of choice and finally force carbonating? This would require some experimentation in...

If it were me, I think I would have difficulty getting over the psychological factor; a little mold resulting from improper cleaning technique is easily overcome, but a dead animal? I put as much emphasis as possible on sanitary brewing, and I think I would get rid of it simply to maintain...

Has anyone tried this? I was enjoying a black and tan with a friend the other week and started thinking, why not try mixing together my favorite commercial brews and see what happens? Today I mixed Dieu du Ciel's Corne du Diable (a solid, generously hopped IPA) with Le Naufrageur's...